As usual great points
One of my boys doesn't do the apps and is going the friends of friends route so far his zero for 2
The first chick he got her IG and they were conversing on there. He tried to initiate a coffee hang and she told him she wasn't feeling well at that time. But she'd get back to him. Even he knew that was a dead end. And stopped trying,
The second chick agreed to a coffee hang, and according to him it went well, but she was off to the UK the next week. Now if this was me, there would have been a second hang before she left as I would have made it clear what the time was.
Despite my advice. My friend struggles with making his intentions clear enough. Like you said too many guys play it way too safe and then get frustrated when the chick has cooled off.
There is definitely a balance to be had. I'm not aggressive and use humour to get chicks comfortable and have fun flirting, that way my romantic intentions are clear so there is no mixed messaging going into our hangout.
My boy doesn't do that so this chick went to the UK and at least for the first few days, he was still messaging her. I told him to allow that.
Which he did as he was coming across like a fan.
Anyway, she got back and actually messaged him telling him she was back in Vancouver, he asked when she was free. She gave him two days Tuesday and Friday but she also told him she was going dancing with her friends that Friday night and if he wanted to come along he could. That was a good sign. In the end, they didn't go but the group hung out for drinks and socialising.
A day later she invites him to her place on the upcoming Tuesday, I was impressed, was he finally going to get it going? found out he turned up at her place and they sat in her garden whilst she repotted plants and talked about not much, and they didn't even go into her house, just sat outside for the entire hang.
I asked about the social group meetup the previous Friday, and from digging deeper he told me she was sitting next to him but was talking facing forward not turning her body towards him. Which for me shows something platonic.
So her behaviour on the Tuesday hang makes sense, she's probably not letting him in her yard lest he get the wrong idea. She likes him, but not romantically. He once again probably put himself in the friend zone.
This is the 4th chick this year where something like this has happened.